Dorkbot 43: Shall We Play a Game?

All work and no play makes for some very dull dorks. Join Dorkbot this moth as we explore things playfully dorky in nature.

• HOW TO FUND YOUR GAME (OR WHATEVER) – Johnathan Leistiko
  “Ya’ Darn Kids, Get Offa My Kickstarter!”

  Back in June of 2010, Jonathan and his friend Jeremy raised $9,400 to self-publish a board game. Jonathan will talk about what it took to Kickstart their project, why they succeeded, why they would have failed if they ran the same campaign today, and his thoughts on how the crowdfunding landscape has changed.

• WHEN WE PLAY FOR FREEDOM – Brandon Wiley
  “Busting Through Firewalls to Defeat Internet Censorship.”

  Brandon revisits the topic of fixing the internet in what promises to be a playful approach to making things better for you and me and probably everyone really.

• HIDE AND SEEK, BUT MOSTLY SEEK – Mikal Hart
  “Return of the Sundial Quest Box.”

  Mikal will share some of the amazing stories of what’s been happening with his “Reverse Geocache Puzzle” since he last spoke at Dorkbot in 2010. There will be a new product announcement and a multi-day treasure hunt for a few lucky audience members.

Dorkbot 43: Shall We Play a Game?
at The North Door, 501 Brushy Street 78702 [map]
Monday, May 20th. Doors at 7, talks at 7:30. Open dork to follow till they run out of beer or they kick us out. Whichever comes first.

RSVP: via Facebook (not required) Always free. All ages welcome.

Enter The North Door through the North Door (duh), off the alley. They have a full bar and a pizza kitchen. Two of the many reasons why we love them.

Dorkbot 41: I, for one, Welcome our Robot Overlords

This February — to celebrate electrical camaraderie — we’ll be partnering with our friends in The Robot Group to bring Big Crawlers, Little Things, and Mechanical Bands to your robot-loving eyes and ears.

• Brooks Coleman shares his robots both Big (Crawler) and Little (Thing)!
• Professor Conrad will show off his newest addition to the Screaming Babyheads band – the Rockin Raven Piano Player.
• Matt Steinke will present some of the instruments from his mechanical band, Octant.
• Quentin & Hilary will tell us how Pony Trap, once a somewhat normal band, became a robot freakout fun time. Plus, a performance!

Dorkbot 41: I, For One, Welcome our Robot Overlords
at The North Door, 501 Brushy Street 78702 [map]
Monday Feb. 18th. Doors at 7, talks at 7:30. Open dork to follow till they run out of beer or they kick us out. Whichever comes first.

RSVP: via Facebook (not required)

Enter The North Door through the North Door (duh), off the alley. They have a full bar and a pizza kitchen. Two of the many reasons why we love them.

Dorkbot is — as always — a FREE, all-ages event. Bring the kids, even if they’re not robots!

Dorkbot 40: Future’s so Bright

It’s going to be a busy year preparing for the singularity. Face the future with your Dorkbot friends and some lovely libations.

• Clay Shortall & Chris Chang – Shadow Puppet – Kinect motion sensors, processing, and Arduino code power an interactive screen of spinning circular panels.
• Eric Jacobs – SARGE, the Slightly Anachronistic Retro Gaming Environment – a homemade development game console that brings NES and Famicom classics back to life with a modern twist.
• Matt Steinke – Octant – a mechanical band.
• Brent Dixon on solving global challenges with play.

Dorkbot 40: Future’s so Bright
at The North Door, 501 Brushy Street 78702 [map]
Monday Jan. 28th. Doors at 7, talks at 7:30. Open dork to follow till they run out of beer or they kick us out. Whichever comes first.
RSVP: via Facebook (not required)

Enter The North Door through the North Door (duh), off the alley. They have a full bar and a pizza kitchen. Two of the many reasons why we love them.

Dorkbot is — as always — a free event. Open to all ages.

Dorkbot 39: Valley of the Dorks

There are 40 panic-inducing shopping days until Christmas. We say screw the lines and the sales and the cinnamon scented holiday jingle filled air and Dork your own Holiday Magic!
Come enjoy three talks on toys, games, and dolls that explore creative expression and are sure to add some tinsel to your turkey.

• Bryon Lloyd – Kids + 3DScanner + 3DPrinter Hear about how to make projects with kids and see some of the creations co-designed by Bryon and his kiddos.
• Brandon Wiley – Make a Video Game With Your Friends… Today!! Inspired by game jams and never one to shy away from a creative urge, Brandon will give you the knowledge and the nudge to quit thinking and start making.
• Yuliya Lanina – Mechanical Dolls and Automaton, Oh My Yuliya shares her misshapen characters, made out of parts that are not supposed to go together, which are her own projections of nonsensical events and their consequences. In other words, magic!

Dorkbot 39: Valley of the Dorks
at ND Austin, 501 Brushy Street 78702 [map]
Monday Nov 19. Doors at 7, talks at 7:30. Open dork to follow till they run out of beer or they kick us out. Whichever comes first.
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/175939155880040/

Enter ND Austin through the North Door, off the alley. They have a full bar and a tamale truck. Two of the many reasons why we love them.

Dorkbot is — as always — a free event. Open to all ages.

Dorkbot 38: Nightmare on Dork Street

This month kicked off our residency at ND Austin, the official homestead of dork and nerd (as well as music, comedy, and film) happenings in Austin.

Monday, October 15, 2012
Doors at 7pm
ND Austin
501 N IH 35, Austin, Texas 78702

Christian Miller is a UT Austin Computer Science graduate student whom you may remember from awesome projects like the UberHoop. Aiming to impress his way into a sweet internship, he made a fancy business card that is a small portable video game system. nbd, just a retro game business card. *totallyabigdealy’all

For just over a century, amateur radio operators or “hams” have been working in basements and attics, taking things apart and putting them together to hear the crackle of a voice coming from the static. Austin’s Amateur Radio Society shared the magic ranging from the simplest homebrew, basically the technological Victory garden for modern communications to the advanced digital high-speed multimedia capability (i.e., The Self Configuring HAM Network) in use around Austin.

Damien Di Fede (@ddifede) rocked the socks off of the Fantastic Arcade with The Dancingularity and was willing to show Dorkbot how he did it, including using Processing to write the software, the reason for running it in Linux, and the hardware (ahem, electrical tape) used to create the web of mats. If you missed the magic you can check out the sweet write up in the Kokoromi blog for more details.

Nerd Nite & Dorkbot: Makin' It Together

Because everyone knows the nerdiest bots are the ones you build yourself.

RSVP HERE: https://www.facebook.com/events/277082602393500/

Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Doors at 7. Talks at 7:30.
ND Austin
501 Brushy Street (at I-35 and E 5th St) 78702
http://www.ndvenue.com/

This month’s agenda:

1. “Hello, Arduino: Meet the tiny computer built for makers and crafters,” by Sharon Cichelli
Take the first step in raising your robot army, and make software that interacts with the real world. The Arduino is a microcontroller designed to be welcoming to those new to programming and new to electronics. Sharon will show us what it is, what you can build with it, and how to get started.

Sharon Cichelli is a software developer, open-source contributor, Arduino hacker, pinball enthusiast, and author of GirlWritesCode.com.

2. “Replicating Reality: Print Adventures in the 3rd Dimension” by Matt Mancuso
Tea, Earl Grey, hot! Matt will share the theory and technical basics behind 3-D printing — and show off some objects he printed on his homemade Replicator.

Matt Mancuso is a geneticist by day, and Member-at-Large/Ombudsman of ATX Hackerspace by night.

3. “How to Make a Robot Without Knowing Electronics” by Luke Keyes
Have you ever wanted to make a robot, but felt the task of learning electronics was too daunting? Luke will explain how he made a robot using a netbook and a thrift-store Roomba and how you can too.

Luke Keyes has spent the past 7+ years as a video game programmer by day (specializing in gameplay systems and AI), and a hobby robotics enthusiast by night.
+————-+
PLUS! PLUS! PLUS!

+ Dorkbot show-and-tell projects at tables throughout the venue!
+ Bangin’ break music by Mickey Delp from Delptronics, and post-Nite vibes from TX Chip, the Texas chiptune collective!
+ Want to get a jump on the socializing? Sign up for Nerd Speed-Dating at 6:30:http://buytickets.at/ nnatx/5638

————-
Main doors at 7:00, talks at 7:30.
As always, Nerd Nite and Dorkbot are free. Buy yourself a beer to celebrate.

The bluebonnets have bloomed, the heat has arrived, soon the yellow buses will be garaged until fall. Come out and help us celebrate the end of the school year in the dorkiest of fashions. This month we will be meeting on Monday May the 21st at the Yellow Jacket Social Club (1704 East 5th St, Austin, TX 78702). We are moving the time back a bit, to make sure the day’s heat has a chance to dissipate and to make sure we have enough inky darkness for projector-ing. We have a few great presentations lined up, but could fit in another one or two – if you have something you’d like to show off, please get in touch with us at dorkbotaustin@dorkbot.org. We hope to see you all on the 21st!

Dorkbot36
Yellow Jacket Social Club
May 21, 2012
8p to 10p
1704 East 5th St, Austin, TX 78702

Finally we can announce our exciting new joint venture as we join forces with our good friends at the ATX Hackerspace to help put together SXSW Create, a Voltron-style all-day event of general awesomeness!

Next Tuesday, March 13th, we will be taking over Palm Park, located at 750 E 3rd Street, just East of the Austin Convention Center, from 11:00am to 6:00pm. Official info here: http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP992393.

First, let’s tear the duct tape off the bad news – this is an official SXSW event, intended for badge holders only This isn’t ideal, but don’t forget about our event with AMODA this Saturday night (http://amoda.org/showcase/showcase.php?EventID=93), which is certainly open to the public

(Also, mums the word, but the rumor has it that unlike some summers, which can be fairly Dork-less, this summer is shaping up to be quite Dork-tastic indeed. More details as they become available.)

Now for the good news:

Free beer!
Tons of our outstanding Dorkbot presenters giving updated presentations of their latest work!
A hacker village full of excellent work by the ATX Hackerspace!
A closing performance by our favorite hacker rock stars, Ghost Ghost!

We look forward to seeing you there!

SXSW is upon us! Batten down the hatches and prepare for the influx of nerds and dorks and geeks from the four corners of the map. Dorkbot is trying something new this year, instead of one big event we are collaborating with local groups to put on two separate events. The first will be the AMODA Laptop Battle at the Mohawk next Saturday. This event is free to SXSW Interactive badgeholders, $5 for AMODA members and open to the public for $10. This party is always pretty great, and we hope the addition of some of our loyal Dorkbot presenters will really take it over the top. More details on our second event soon!

The basic details are below, and full information is available at http://amoda.org/showcase/showcase.php?EventID=93.

Saturday, March 10th, 2012
Mohawk
(10th & Red River)
8pm-2am
$10 general;
$5 for members
Free with SXSW Interactive badge
18 and up

PLEASE NOTE: We strongly recommend arriving on time for this event. Due to sound ordinance, the Laptop Battle is scheduled between 10pm and midnight. Also, we are expecting a large number of SXSW badge holders and may reach capacity.

Dorks and Dorkettes!

The time is upon us, once again! Join us on Monday, January 30th at the ATX Hackerspace from 7-10pm as we celebrate a new year of general dorkiness, and ask the question, “Do Robots Dream of Arduino Sheep?” This will be our last meeting before SXSW, so if you want to show off a new creation, polish up a presentation, or show off a work in progress, please let us know!

Dorkbot33@ATX Hackerspace
Monday, January 30th
7p to 10p
1601 Rutherford Lane, A200, Austin TX 78754

We hope to see everyone on the 30th!